Kolkata (
Bengali: কলকাতা / কোলকাতা) , formerly
Calcutta , is the
capital of the
Indian state of
West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the
Hooghly river, it is the principal commercial, cultural, and educational centre of
East India, while the
Port of Kolkata is India's oldest operating port and its sole major riverine port. , the city had 4.5 million residents; the urban agglomeration, which comprises the city and its suburbs, was home to approximately 14.1 million, making it the
third-most populous metropolitan area in India. , its gross domestic product (adjusted for
purchasing power parity) was estimated to be 104 billion, which would be
third highest among Indian cities, behind
Mumbai and
Delhi. As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Kolkata confronts substantial urban pollution, traffic congestion, poverty, overpopulation, and other logistic and socioeconomic problems.